Welcome to A New Life.

Chapter 4: Camping Part 2

Hey

here I am again.
Have fun with the new chapter.

LG

She looked at him and saw that he was fighting against his tears.
"She will watch you from above Deacon and she will be damn proud of all of you. To the children that they find their way back into life, but she will also be proud of you. Proud of how you are there for the children, proud that you have friends who are there for you and the children. And above all, she will be proud of you. Proud that you are trying to live on. There will certainly be such days again and again when it does not work so well. But I'm sure she wouldn't have wanted you to miss your life now. She would have wanted you to get up again, to be a good father to the children, just to be happy again, "
but am I not betraying her?"
"Why should you betray them when you are trying to live your life? No one tells you to forget them and the years you've had together. You should even carry them in your heart forever. But imagine if you died in their place. Wouldn't you wish for her to try to live her life? That she is alive, maybe even would have loved again at some point. Or in this case, would you have wanted her to just work and take care of the children and give up her life"
There was silence and Emma was afraid of having said something wrong. She was about to get up when suddenly someone grabbed her hand. Frightened, she withdrew her hand because she hated such touches and made them afraid. But the next moment, she knew it was Deacon and that he just needed a little gesture.
She sat down again and took his hand, then she looked at him again."
Thank you for being so honest. Maybe you're right"
"Would you like to tell me about her?" she asked, maybe it would help him a little if he could talk to someone who didn't know Anni. And so they sat by the fire until 3 o'clock in the morning and he just talked what he could think of. And that night Emma realized that there was probably still something like great love, because he had probably found it in his Anni. And her story touched her.
When she lay down under her blanket, she thought about the last few weeks. About the weeks she's been here in L.A. And the feeling that spread in her was joy, friendship, affection, honesty. Many values that she had not really known anymore. Yes, she had friends in Chicago, but her team had messed it all up. All their lightness had disappeared and slowly reappeared here. How much she had always wanted such a team as this. They confided in them their lives every day and she had to say she had never had a bad feeling, and she didn't have that in the months before her change. She had always been happy when she had survived the day. With these thoughts she had fallen asleep.

"Emma get up" she heard a child's voice at some point.
"5 minutes left purple" she grumbled and turned around.
"PAPA, she doesn't want to," the little one shouted through the whole tent. It took a few minutes for Emma to fall asleep completely when she was suddenly tickled. Immediately she was wide awake, screamed in panic, beat around, jumped up and ran away. Shocked, Street, Chris and the children looked after her.
"What happened?" Hondo and Deacon immediately ran to them.
" No idea. We tickled them together with the children. She panicked and ran away," Chris explained what had happened.
"I'm looking for her," Jessica commented and went in search of her friend. So she didn't know her friend.
Emma had calmed down in the meantime and sat down on a rock. From there she had a great view. When she settled down, tears were already running down her cheek. The memories were just the horror. The touches that colleagues did without thinking anything about it. But for her, it always triggered so much. Now that she was alone, she could let her feelings run wild.

In the meantime, Jessica had joined the group again.
" I couldn't find her"
" she will come again. Maybe she just needs a moment for herself," Hondo tried to calm the troupe. But he himself was also worried. He had often noticed that she immediately winced when touched.
"Dad, we didn't want to scare her," Matt said quietly and sadly. Just as he could answer, they heard a voice.
"Matt, it's not your fault," Emma said. The others were glad she was back. Emma sat down with them on the tree trunk.
"I don't like it when I'm woken up like that because I once had a bad experience in a mission. But I'm sorry, I didn't want to scare you or make you sad," she said gently, whispering the children's hair. But she could not look the adults in the eye, because they would immediately notice that it was not true. But she wasn't willing to talk or deal with it.
"What do we still do today before we go home again" she tried to change the topic.
"We want to go to the waterfall. Are you coming along?"
" Well, what kind of question is that? Of course. I love waterfalls," she grinned.
"well then, departure in 15 minutes," laughed Hondo and was glad that the situation was now better again, but he knew that she had lied. But he would talk to her about it another time or talk to Jessica.

On the way to the waterfall they played catch and sang together. Especially Emma and Street fooled around with the children. It was exactly what she needed now, needed to clear her head. Just before the waterfall, Deacon wanted the children to shake someone's hand. Sam immediately grabbed Hondo's hand. Matt that of Street and Lila that of Emma.
"How about a team photo?" asked Jessica with a laugh. Immediately everyone stood next to each other and Jessica took a nice snapshot. And now the big photo shoot had broken out. The children wanted photos. Emma took a few photos of the children explaining the waterfall to her dad. And she also took a few snapshots of Street and Chris, who were fooling around. The two would really make a beautiful couple, she noticed with every single picture. And also with Jessica and Hondo the sparks jumped, good that you didn't see them in the photos.
"Emma, can we take a selfie?" Lila suddenly asked.
"of course" she climbed up to her on the stone and knelt to the girl, just as she pulled the trigger, Deacon and Matt jumped into the photo. Emma realized how exuberant he was today.
"Oh Dad" Purple pulled a barge.
" Not bad. Let's do a new one," laughed Emma and laughingly warned the boys not to fall into the picture this time.
Satisfied and with a smile on their faces, they all went back to their place together, because they still had to dismantle everything.

As a team, they worked great as always and quickly they had everything stowed back in their cars and made their way back to L.A. Before they left, Hondo had invited them all to his home, because his mother had cooked for everyone. But first everyone drove to the SWAT headquarters to get their own cars. Deacon helped her unload.
" Emma, thank you for tonight. You were right about what you said. I can't spend my whole life grieving. I have to live on and try to be happy again."
"Gladly David" it was the first time she called him that.
"Emma?" he followed. She turned back to him.
"I want you to know when something depresses you, I'm here for you. Okay"
She nodded gratefully.
"Well, you know where Hondo lives, if not, then just drive behind me"
Okay, thank you" she got in and followed him to her team leader's house. His mother had been totally nice and the food had just been awesome. Now she also knew why Hondo could cook so well.
Little by little, everyone said goodbye. Emma and Jessica had taken care of the dishes. After that was done, she also wanted to leave.

Jessica hugged her friend and she winked at him.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do"
"How..." Jessica didn't get any further.
"I have eyes in my head and I know you. Tomorrow evening at my house and I want to know everything," she whispered and then wired herself to Hondo.
"I'm going now. Thank you for everything," she waved and wanted to leave.
"Wait, I'll accompany you outside"
When she arrived at her car, she turned to her boss.

" Thank you for this weekend. It was really good for me and I learned a lot about this team," she smiled.
" That makes me Happy Foster. We are not only a team, we are also friends and something like a small family. And that's why I want to tell you that we are always there for you when you need us"
"Thank you" she looked at him gently.
"And now disappear to her," she laughed out loud. He looked at her frightened.
"My lips are closed" then she got in and drove off. He, on the other hand, just stood there laughing and shaking his head. This woman was amazing.